CA Irrigation District Inherits Lakeside Resort But Discovers An Environmental Disaster - Sacbee

[hatrack]

Oops.

The El Dorado Irrigation District thought it had inherited a rustic resort on Silver Lake, but instead found it got a rundown operation that one official described as an "environmental disaster." The district, which serves about 100,000 customers in western El Dorado County, broke off negotiations with a prospective concessionaire to operate a store, restaurant and cabins at the lake after discovering the facilities are riddled with health, safety and environmental hazards.

Recent inspections by district staff members and an environmental consultant found that Kay's Silver Lake Resort, off Highway 88, is in far worse shape than the district realized when it issued a request for proposals earlier this year to upgrade and operate the facilities.

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Staff members cited problems including:

• Electrical power lines are placed in a drainage culvert running under Highway 88 to power the water pump. The state Department of Transportation ordered the district to remove the lines or face legal action.

• Diesel-powered generator motors are improperly installed, with exhaust from the engines vented through the rear wall of a wooden structure directly into a nearby hillside. A staff report says exhaust residue has permeated the soil, and rain was washing it toward the lake.

• A wooden shed houses unmarked 55-gallon drums of diesel fuel, and the dirt floor appears to be saturated with spilled fuel.

• A tank for potable water sits on stacked cinder blocks and is not braced to prevent it from toppling in an earthquake. Also, the tank lid isn't secured to prevent someone from contaminating the water supply.

• Two second-floor doorways, which may once have opened onto balconies, now lead only onto a drop to the ground.

• Signs of mold and mildew exist throughout the buildings housing the residences, old restaurant and kitchen.

• Septic systems are inadequate and leaking.

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http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/87139.html

I'm booking my reservation TODAY!!!

[kestrel91316]

1. Tear it down and restore the natural environment there. Period.